Metro to invest ’560 cr to open eight new stores
By Vidhi Choudhary, Mint, New Delhi
Feb. 22--Metro AG, Germany's largest retailer, will invest an additional '560 crore this year to set up eight wholesale stores in India to take advantage of the growth in consumption in Asia's third-largest economy.
The company opened its tenth wholesale store in India in New Delhi on Tuesday, adding to those it operates in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ludhiana and Jalandhar.
Metro spent '45 crore to set up the store in Delhi.
Metro Cash and Carry India, the local unit, will focus on opening wholesale stores in tier I and tier II cities this year, with their next store set to open in Jaipur in April.
"The relevance of large-format stores and modern retail has started coming up only in the last five years owing to rising consumption expenditure and multiple needs of consumers," said Rajeev Bakshi, managing director of Metro Cash and Carry India.
Metro opened its first wholesale store in India in 2003 in a country where local law bars overseas retailers such as Metro and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. from opening retail stores. India doesn't restrict overseas retailers from opening wholesale stores, which are only allowed to sell to other retailers, restaurants and caterers among some other categories.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's attempt to change the law to allow Wal-Mart and other overseas companies to own as much as 51% in local retailers failed earlier this year as the ruling Congress party could not muster support from some of its allies.
But the government has permitted foreign companies to raise ownership to 100% from 51% in stores that sell a single brand, allowing companies such as Starbucks Corp. to open fully owned stores.
Acquiring real estate to set up stores remains a challenge for the industry, said Bakshi.
Sameer Barde, head of retail division, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said all the challenges faced by retailers, such as licensing problems and manpower issues, apply to the wholesale segment as well.
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Read More»It’s a Romney thing: Family values and high finance for presidential hopeful’s son
By Eric Wolff, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.
Feb. 22--Matt Romney dressed up for his interview with the North County Times.
Though Romney and his colleagues at Excel Trust Inc. in Rancho Bernardo dress up for meetings with clients, the son of the front-running Republican presidential candidate takes advantage of his employer's casual dress code, which allows jeans and T-shirts, and he sometimes observes, as one of his colleagues said, "no-shave Mondays."
But this day, Mitt Romney's second son wore brown slacks and a button-down shirt, and made sure to give himself a quick check in his iPhone camera app before being photographed.
Romney lives in 4S Ranch, west of Rancho Bernardo, with his wife of 15 years and four children.
Though he's spent the parts of the last year campaigning with his father, Romney is still nervous around the press, even joking with a colleague, "I guess I'm interesting now."
Romney, 40, and his wife, Laurie, moved to San Diego in 2005. He graduated from Harvard with his MBA in 2003 and went to work for Microsoft afterward. He started real estate investing as a sideline and soon realized he preferred the tangible nature and steady income of real estate to the riskier virtual world of technology.
He works as senior vice president for capital markets for Excel Trust, a publicly traded real estate investment trust specializing in multitenant commercial properties. His brother, Craig, who also lives in 4S Ranch, works in an office in the same building, and he was walking out as a North County Times reporter walked in.
The following is an edited, condensed version of his conversation with the North County Times. To listen to the full recording, visit nctimes.com.
Question: Why move to San Diego?
Answer: My wife and I looked at a map, and we were looking at areas where my family lived, and we wanted to be near family. But not knowing where they'd end up, we decided that we'd pick a nice place where we could attract them to come. My goal -- and they know it -- is to get as many family members as we can living near us as possible. My brother (Craig) just moved out here a year and a half ago, and my folks ended up buying a place here. They're here, but not as much as we'd like. They're kind of busy right now.
Q: Tell me about Excel (Trust).
Read More»York’s proposed 2013 budget includes tax rate hike
By Amanda Kerr, Daily Press, Newport News, Va.
Feb. 22--YORK -- York County Administrator James McReynolds Tuesday unveiled his proposed 2013 budget, which includes a 5.6 percent, or $6.9 million, increase in the county's general fund budget.
As proposed, the total county budget, which includes all of the county's funds, is $160.32 million, down $1.1 million from the current year. The county's general fund, or operating budget, will increase from $123 million to $129.9 million. The increase puts the general fund at 2009 funding levels.
McReynolds proposes increasing the county's contribution to the York School Division by 10 percent, or $4.6 million. That puts the county's total contribution to the division's operating costs at $49.5 million in addition to $7.8 million in debt service, which equals 46 percent of the county's operating budget.
The increase to the schools comes after Superintendent Eric Williams requested $4.5 million more in county funding to help cover rising costs, including VRS and health insurance payments.
The county's expenditures in the proposed budget are increasing $2.3 million, including a $760,000 increase in the county's contribution to VRS, a $400,000 increase in health insurance premiums and $600,000 for a 1.5 percent raise for county employees.
To cover these expenses, McReynolds proposes a real estate tax rate increase of 11.75 cents, which would generate $6.3 million in tax revenue. The change would increase the tax rate from the current rate of 65.75 cents to 77.5 cents.
The increase to the real estate tax rate is significant, but it is not the highest the rate the county's seen. In 2003, the county's property tax rate was 86 cents.
The county faces a $3.2 million total revenue drop because of the decline in 2012 property assessments as well as the closure of the Yorktown refinery and the Altria plant.
McReynolds said he felt the tax-rate increase is necessary to maintain county services.
"It is my opinion that in order to reduce the budget (to avoid raising the real estate tax rate) in any significant way there would have to be major changes in the level of services," he said.
The only significant cut in the budget is 22 vacant positions which will equal $1 million in savings.
Read More»2 Roanoke restaurants await outcome of foreclosure
By Lindsey Nair, The Roanoke Times, Va.
Feb. 22--The owners of two popular Roanoke restaurants, Norberto's Italian and The Isaacs Mediterranean, are among the tenants waiting to see how a foreclosure auction next week will affect the leases on their Grandin Village quarters.
The auction of two buildings at 1908 and 1910 Memorial Ave. S.W., along with a neighboring parking lot, comes after the property owners became so mired in debt that they could no longer make payment on more than $800,000 in loans with StellarOne Bank, according to a lawsuit filed in Roanoke Circuit Court in early January.
The lawsuit names Benjamin W. Ward of Heathsville and Apollo Y. Leong, a family practitioner at Primary Care Associates in Salem. Neither Ward nor Leong could be reached for comment.
According to real estate records, Ward and Leong purchased the property for $500,000 in early 2008. The year before, Ward's nephew, Benjamin H. Ward, had opened The Isaacs Mediterranean Restaurant along with a business partner, Martha Taylor.
The younger Ward says that even after an extensive remodeling of The Isaacs in late 2008, the company was in good financial shape and was paying down its debt. Then, they decided to open a second restaurant, Meze World Cafe, in downtown Roanoke in 2009. It lasted barely a year, and it was during that restaurant's decline that the company got behind on taxes.
"I feel like I've ruined my damn family," Benjamin H. Ward said. "My uncle invested in [The Isaacs] because he believed in it. We did Meze because we believed in that, too. I have learned a lot of lessons the hard way."
Although Benjamin H. Ward has never been an owner of the restaurant business or the real estate, he managed The Isaacs until a few months ago and has been held responsible for tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes. Under federal law, a penalty may be assessed against anyone who is responsible for paying taxes but willfully fails to pay them.
In addition, even though Taylor left The Isaacs in June 2008, she was named as a defendant in a judgment last year for $13,591 in bills from one of the restaurant's suppliers, U.S. Foodservice. Meze World Cafe owes U.S.Foodservice, as well; a similar judgment has Benjamin H. Ward on the hook for $5,900 in unpaid bills for that establishment.
Read More»Mayor Alvin Brown’s out-of-town choice for budget officer stays in contention with deferral
By Steve Patterson, The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville
Feb. 22--Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown's pick for the city's next budget officer stayed in contention for the $125,000-a-year job Tuesday because of a last-minute deferral by a City Council panel.
Photo Gallery: Mayor Brown around town -- February 2012
Before then, the Rules Committee seemed ready to reject former Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago executive Glenn Hansen unless he committed to move from St. Marys, Ga.
City law requires new employees to live in Duval County.
"It is sad and unfortunate, but I will not be able to support this," Rules Chairman Bill Bishop said about a waiver that would exempt Hansen from the residency standard.
However, Bishop agreed to postpone the vote for two weeks at the request of Jessica Deal, Brown's council liaison.
After committee members said they felt torn by the choice and had heard from constituents concerned about making an exception, Deal asked for the deferral "to see if we can come up with some sort of compromise."
Hansen said he wanted the job but would lose heavily if he put his house in Georgia up for sale.
"The real estate market is what it is. I can't predict when the housing market is going to come back," he said.
After asking Hansen's address, Councilman Matt Schellenberg did a web search for home values and said he found an estimate of $452,700.
"I've got significantly, significantly more invested," Hansen said.
Records show the Camden County, Ga., Board of Tax Assessors valued his property at $650,000.
steve.patterson@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4263
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Read More»Groundbreaking for parking lots this year
By Wassim Mroueh, The Daily Star, Beirut, Lebanon
Feb. 22--BEIRUT -- Construction to build an underground parking lot to accommodate up to 2,000 cars is set to begin later this year, in a project designed to ease parking headaches and improve the appearance of Downtown Beirut.
The construction of an underground parking lot in the capital's Martyrs Square is expected to kick off in late 2012, Beirut Mayor Bilal Hamad told The Daily Star Tuesday.
The move comes after the Beirut Municipality decided last week to task the Council of Development and Reconstruction with supervising the tender-bidding process, contract awarding and execution of work.
"Work will start before the end of this year. Once finished, the parking space will accommodate between 1,500 and 2,000 cars," Hamad said, adding that a Build, Operate and Transfer contract would be signed by the company selected to carry out the project. Under the BOT contract, a company will build and operate the facility -- earning revenue -- before the municipality assumes ownership.
Hamad said that studies for the project are almost done, adding that, if all goes to plan, the tender-bidding process would be held in late spring.
One of "the most beautiful gardens" will be created in Martyrs Square once the underground parking space is built, the mayor added.
"Its design will be prepared by one of the most prominent landscape designers, who has worked with SOLIDERE," said Hamad, in reference to the company that reconstructed Downtown Beirut following the 1975-1990 Civil War.
The project is designed to address the mounting demand for parking lots in Beirut. The recent real estate boom in Lebanon, particularly in the capital, has left little room for parking lots but the municipality has selected several places to construct parking buildings as well as underground parking lots.
The municipal council also approved a preliminary study last week to construct an underground parking lot in the neighborhood of Ain al-Mreisseh.
"We approved one of four concept designs that were proposed. It will be an [underground] two-story parking lot with a parking space of 20,000 square meters and capacity to accommodate 680 cars," Hamad said, adding that work for the project should also begin this year.
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